What is a flat white?

Paris. Tokyo. London. Santiago. The humble flat
white now appears on café menus around the globe. The
precise birthplace of this Antipodean creation, however, is a point
of contention in the coffee world. "There have been a lot of claims
to who invented the flat white," says Hazel de los Reyes, owner of
Sydney's Coffee Alchemy. "It's a bit of a trans-Tasman feud."

Some say it was invented by New Zealand coffee
pioneer Jeff Kennedy at Wellington's Caffè L'affare,
which he founded in 1990. Others say it grew from Australia's love
of instant coffee. "Instant coffee was the dominant coffee in
Australia," says Les Schirato, CEO of Vittoria Coffee. "Then in the
late '80s Italian-based espresso started to grow." But instant
coffee drinkers wanted an espresso-based drink that resembled what
they were used to, not the aerated frothy cappuccino transplanted
from Italy, so baristas started making coffees with less foam.

Now we (sort of) know where it came from, but what
exactly is a flat white? And what's the difference between
a flat white and a latte? Most cafés offer three main milk-based
espresso coffees - the cappuccino, the flat white and the latte -
all made with one shot of espresso and steamed milk. The cappuccino
has lots of foam - generally between 1.5cm and 2cm - and is topped
with chocolate powder (something that isn't necessarily the case
outside Australia). Lattes and flat whites have no
chocolate powder and significantly less foam, but the precise
distinction between them is debated among coffee connoisseurs. Some
say there's no difference at all.

"For the most part a flat white and a latte are the exact same
drink, made the same way," says Tom Roden, co-owner of Adelaide's
Exchange Specialty Coffee. "And we serve them both in the same
six-ounce ceramic cup." Sydney's Coffee Alchemy approaches the two coffees
differently. "Given the same volume, our lattes have a centimetre
of foam and the flat whites have slightly less," says de los Reyes.
"We also serve lattes in a glass and flat whites in a cup." To
avoid the confusion between milk-based coffees, some operators have
dodged the question entirely. "Some cafés just describe their
coffees as 'black coffee' and 'white coffee' and steam all the milk
coffees the same, with about half a centimetre to a centimetre of
foam," says Sarah Baker, editor of Bean Scene
magazine.

With the number of milk-based coffees appearing on menus
growing, and the differences between them becoming less distinct,
World Coffee Events, which hosts global coffee competitions such as
the World Barista Championship, changed its
competition rules. In the past, contestants had to make a
cappuccino to specific dimensions, but last year it was changed to
a standard "milk beverage", defined as "a combination of a single
shot of espresso and steamed cow's milk".

It's a definition that's open to interpretation. So how do you
pick a good one? "When you judge a milk-based beverage you check if
it's in the right vessel, if the milk is glossy and without
bubbles, if it has symmetrical latte art, if the milk is at the
right temperature (between 62 and 65 degrees is optimum) and if
there's a dominant flavour of espresso," says Nic Michaelides,
Barista Guild head at the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.
"There has to be a harmony between espresso and milk. I believe if
your vessel is 180ml, with 28ml to 30ml espresso and 150ml milk
including foam, you'll get a really good ratio of milk to
espresso."

Coffee today is more than instant and espresso. Walk in to any
café and you'll find options ranging from pour-over to
cold-drip, siphon to Aeropress. What does this
mean for the future of the flat white? "The majority of our
clientele are still the flat white, latte and cappuccino drinkers,"
says de los Reyes. "There'll always be new and novel approaches to
making coffee, but the milk-based espresso drinkers are not going
to go away - they're just going to demand better-and-better-tasting
flat whites."